I tell you what, I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music this year. I’m not sure if that’s a sign of age, or that I feel disenchanted by the constant bickering between Kanye and Drake. Can’t you both just be friends?
Anyway, big up the classical music scene. Some absolute bangers from John Adams and Tchaikovsky pulling me through this post.
I know that it upsets people that I use references of the not-so-distant past to frame up where we are now, but look, for context, I’m the kind of guy who will make a beeline for a work colleague on a packed train, just to acknowledge that I have seen them… even if they are avoiding eye contact with headphones on. Simply put, I’m going to compare Wenger to Emery for at least another year, so get used to it.
Unai Emery showed exactly how different the mentality at the club is these days.
“I think we are doing our way and improving, but the reality is that we need more.
“Our ideas and work with the players is to learn together. All of us can give everybody new ideas.
“I think the players are open to listening to us about our new tactical work with our analysis in videos. We need to do this work quickly, but we also need patience.
If this had been 2 years ago, we’d be talking about winning the league and the big twitter accounts would be digging up tweets from 7 years ago gleefully proclaiming the victory was theirs!
Not anymore. Our manager is a pragmatist very much anchored to reality. We’re in 5th position, that’s not good enough, and even though we’re not losing, we could be doing better.
That’s a great attitude. That’s a message to players that complacency won’t be tolerated, nor will premature-back patting. We’ve achieved nothing this season and we’re still a long way off the levels City and Liverpool are bringing to the table.
This season is fierce, so many teams are on an absolute rampage. Spurs and City won again, Liverpool is likely to decapitate Jose Mourinho tomorrow when they host his shit-housing-extraordinaires. We have to keep up the pace, there’s no room for dropped points and that sort of pressure is hard to deal with.
It’s going to be very tough tomorrow against Southampton. You have a group of players who are under a new coach who is far smarter than Mark Hughes, so there’s an extra level of intrigue there. We also have a very old defence that is so worrying, you’d have to imagine even Southampton will fancy their chances. We could be rolling out with Hector, Lichtsteiner, Monreal and Koscielny. Two of those haven’t rocked a 90minutes in a while.
It’ll be very interesting to see how Emery deals with that. Do we sit slightly deeper to avoid counters, or do we just play the way we have been all season and try and drop them in the second half after going a goal down? I’d imagine there will be a tactical consideration here, because it does feel like we’re very exposed.
There are some rumours that are being fueled by Auba’s Instagram that suggest we could counter the age issue at the back by fielding Zech Medley. The U23 defender came into the side midweek and impressed in the second half. It’s risky, but these young players need game time if they’re to progress, and there’s no better way to know if a player can handle the pressure other than utilising them in an emergency.
Mesut Ozil will be back in contention for the game after a being out for a few weeks with back spasms, so we’ll see if the coach fancies him in the first team so soon… I’d imagine he’ll be benched and eased back into the first team. Aaron Ramsey is available again, which is great news. I do wonder if he’ll continue to be benched. We all want him to play, but it doesn’t make sense to get the fans used to his presence if we’re going to try and bin him in 3 weeks time.
There’s also the big NLD game that’ll be on the players minds. Spurs in the league cup on Wednesday is technically not as important as Southampton, but it’s huge one for the fans. How hard is Emery planning on going for that game? Is his priority #top4… or a trophy at any cost? So many decisions to be made!
Finally, just a few other items I wanted to check off.
People bringing Ashley Cole into the Sterling row are desperately revising history. He was an absolute darling of Arsenal football club until he betrayed Arsene Wenger in a shady backroom deal with Mourinho which he claimed was accidental. His book quotes were an abomination and a total embarrassment even for a mollycoddled footballer. Factor in the countless PR gaffs he brought on himself… like cheating on his wife with a hairdresser.
“We started having sex then he just rolled over and vomited on the floor all over the cream carpet, it was disgusting.”
“He had some mouthwash then jumped back into bed. We started having sex again but his mates piled into the room.”
For most men, that’s game over, so I have to give him credit for plowing on and being a solutions-oriented kind of guy… however, when you’re married to the most famous woman in Britain, you really can’t complain about bad press, especially when you sell your wedding to gossip magazines for a £1m.
Oh, he also shot an intern with an air rifle from 5 feet.
ALSO: Pavon and De Ligt being linked to Arsenal. Unrealistic, but damn exciting regardless!
Right, enjoy the game, I’ll see you in the comments.
P.S. I ran into an original Le Grove commenter in a New York laundry yesterday. The world is a small place when you’re a gooner!
Bankz is here for the Tr4phy again
2
The 3 stooges…graham,Tony and bamford
Boooom
Tr4phy secured.
3 points all the way today boys! COYG!
Alright Tony,Beautiful sunny morning in London Town after a horrid day yesterday, always a better day when there are blue skies to enjoy. Haven’t been to Thailand since 1988, went the first time in 1984. Stayed in a beachside hammock on Koh Samui for a while. Had to get a ferry to get to the island – so beautiful. Lovely people as well as a beautiful place although I’m sure there are loads of areas to avoid due to tourism. Worked briefly as a travel consultant in the City and was disgusted by the number of obvious sex tourists who… Read more »
Ashley Cole has always been a dickhead even in his arsenal years – I disliked him even in our squad He was an extremely talented player and had pace technique and the rest, but he was also a gobby little shit (often unprovoked) and there were literally countless times when that arsenal team got caught on the counter down his side and he was casually jogging back rather than busting a gut to sort it out He was let off for that because 1) he was genuinely a very talented guy and 2) he was ‘one of ours’ But the… Read more »
Ashley Cole, best youth player to represent Arsenal in last 20 years or so. Bit of a toe rag though!
Tony Adams wasn’t too bad!
Only if you don’t count cesc for coming from Barca
Cesc was one of the top 10 players in the world by the time he was 20. Ashley was an elite player but no cesc
Fair point China, there is a case for arguing that he was ‘home grown’.
Wont forget trophy trolling Arsenal fans too. Cashley Cole.
Pavon and De Ligt are not unrealistic for Arsenal.
We cant keep buying stop-gaps, ay some point we have to bring inyoinger players. We have a truly elite team and I wouldn’t put anything past them.
Pavon is more likely though. We’ve been linked to him forever.
Regardless of when Ramsey leaves. He has written himself into the good graces of most gooners. He’s been an excellent professional.
I never thought he would still be this devoted on his way out. Kudos to him.
We went over the top with Ashley Cole, the club really did shaft him with that deal since we are now giving extraordinary wages to lesser players like Bellerin.
There are parallels with Sterling because the OTT abuse from Liverpool fans and other latent predujices fostered an environment where it seemed abusing him was okay.
We also went overboard with Adebayor. I’ll leave that for another day though.
“a solutions-oriented kind of guy”
I liked this bit. Good post, Pedro.
Haven’t seen much of Pavon other to than a highlight or two, but im not overly impressed. He’s fast and can dribble a bit, but he doesn’t seem to be a top end talent.
Signing a player like him means we won’t be in the market for Ousmane or Sancho when they make their next move. Would be disappointed.
There could be sense in it though, De Ligt could cost about £60 Million but then he is 19 years old and one of the most sought after CBs in Europe. We badly need a CB, he could provide the solution for years to come and not only that in this market in a couple of years could be worth £100 Million. It is the same for Pavon if he does well, the same for Sarr, the same for Havertz, the same for bargain buys like Suarez at £14 Million. They are just rumours at this point, but the links… Read more »
Bob Not being a Londoner, I looked up “toe rag” just to see how low of an insult you were leveling at Cole. I am glad I did, as I found this edifying little passage from a BBC writer: “London slang is well known for being pretty ripe. A lot of the expressions used come from things which are either disgusting in the first place, or from the kind of anger and sense of outrage you’d get from jamming too many people into too small a place, at at time before the discovery of germs and bacteria, before the development… Read more »
Tough game today.
Form wise it shouldn’t be, but we struggle at Southampton, hopefully Emery can put a stop to that, and also our CB issues are pretty bad.
Interested to see whether Emery goes with Lichtsteiner or Medley.
We start slowly but we cannot give Southampton any reason to think they’re in the game early on. Keep the crowd quiet and get out with the 3 points.
Bob
Agree re Medley. Looks a player.
Cesc, if we can start well (is that even possible this season?) Southampton’s confidence will be wafer thin and we could win comfortably but obviously new manager can give a team a real boost and if they start well…
Learn something every day Bamford!
The term is often used in ‘he can be a bit of a toe rag’ which diminishes the insult somewhat!
By the way, his first name is “Zech,” not “Zach”. Mother or father might be German, I guess, or just creative.
The key for me is the playing out from the back. This could be problematic if not executed correctly, Southampton got a couple of those type of scrimpers that love to be provided with scraps.
Yeah a lot of English insults are not actually that insulting, toe rag, numpty, plonker, div etc.
Americans always seem to find it weird how we use swear words as terms of affection, you silly twat, you bellend etc to a mate in a loving way.
I would guess ‘creative’!
Bob N16 Just worries me that we do start badly, we invited United into the game and they grew in confidence. Southampton will do the same and the crowd will be up for it given it is Arsenal. I said before, these games for a struggling team and new manager are seen as foothold type games. A huge, galvanizing win that doesn’t really change their position but can be seen as a rallying moment. Emery likes to play out from the back but with a dodgy set of CBs that could be an issue. I was watching the training videos… Read more »
His name is Zechariah
Couldn’t agree more Cesc. Just hope the players are on it and begin fast. Their crowd will be buzzing so atmosphere might make for a great start, hopefully by the good guys!
Hey shut up, you fannies
Today might be the day we finally win in 1HT and then lose the match lol. I hope not. Would rather we continue as we were…
Medley might just play. If he does, I hope he does well.
Rambo, the comment section too united for you? Just give it a bit of time…
Rumor mill saying that Pogba could be off in January and that Mourinho will get a defender or two. Also that Chelsea are confident of landing Pulisic, which could mean they would be selling Hudson-Odoi.
What do people think of trying to get Hudson Odoi if Chelsea do throw him on the scrapheap for Pulisic?
Let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the first time Chelsea has thrown away a great young player.
Munich are sniffing around him apparently.
Revenge for Gnabry, don’t let them have him.
“I’ve been running since the end of August and I was near the team during the training sessions. I watched all the training, so I know all the tactics, all the runs, when we have the ball, when we need to defend and when we need to press.”
– Koscielny
Saka is our Hudson Odoi. Of course at a minimal cost, we should get him if he becomes available but no way should we spend significant money on him.
Also for January, I think it’s clear we don’t need to buy another striker to cover for welbz as the club has suggested. Eddie has barely played and is frankly ok as 3rd choice. So I think we might get a winger this January
The Guardian see PSG, Juventus, City and Barca as the favorites in the CL, with Barca just ahead of City.
They see Liverpool losing in the quarters, Spurs losing in the 16.
Don’t they realize Spurs have Harry Kane, “the most complete striker on the planet”? Hmmm, they don’t even mention him. Strange. Apparently they don’t think he’s all that dangerous at this top, top level.
(I’ve added this last bit, obviously, just to irritate a few people and stir up a little discord.)
“Champions League Predictions”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2018/dec/14/champions-league-predictions-knockout-stages-last-16?CMP=share_btn_tw
By the way, if you set aside penalties, Mo Salah has 10 goals in the PL at this point, while Harry Kane has 6. That is, Salah has nearly double the goals Kane has, and this in a year in which Salah has been “off” as far as many are concerned.
Again, just stirring the pot a little.
Wow. Medley is 6’5″. I didn’t realize he was that tall.
China
I’d actually disagree with you there. Genuinely think Ashley Cole was best left back in the world for a number of years. Guy would consistently put in 8-9 performances game after game both domestically and for England.
Bamford
Get over yourself mate, people don’t agree with everything you say and some of us rate Kane very highly. Stop being a child over differing opinions.
Cole did a dirty but the chick hung around after the sick…she still fancied a piece of his winkle. The femme is not without blame here.
London How is mooting the issue in a lighthearted, playful way equivalent to my somehow not being accepting of “differing opinions”? I’ll help you: it’s not. Indeed, the opposite is the case: it is you and the Harry-Kane-is-unquestionably-Madrid-PSG-City-starting-XI-quality crowd that cannot tolerate any opinion other than your own. And I think you’re being a bit stroppy about it because his performances this season support my opinion more than they support yours. A very good player. Comparable to an Higuain. Not a top XI in the world player, however. Not good enough to start or shine for a Madrid or PSG… Read more »
Anyhow it comes….three points are very crucial going into the yuletide….. Aubameyang is due for a brace today….
Hope we win today with all the defensive issues we’ve got
Expect a very very very tough game this afternoon. We are gonna need all hands on deck to bring something home
whatever his off field activities were ,Ashley Cole was a quality full back who could sense danger,many a time he was in the right place at the right time with last ditch tackles and clearances off the line. His leaving along with his winning mentality was the start of Arsenal’s s!ow decline…I’m not sure that Arsenal football club have had such a talented left back . Kenny Samson,Nigel Winterburn, Bob Mcnab all quality left backs but debatable whether they were of the level of Ashley Cole. If Arsenal hadn’t tried to keep him on the cheap ,I’m sure he would… Read more »
Kos and Lit at the back as part of a back 4
Team to play Southampton: Leno, Bellerin, Koscielny, Lichtsteiner, Monreal, Xhaka, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang
Subs: Elneny, Cech, Ramsey, Lacazette, Ozil, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah
Flat back four! Montreal enables that line up!
Leno, Bellerin, Koscielny, Lichtsteiner, Monreal, Xhaka, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang.
Subs: Elneny, Cech, Ramsey, Lacazette, Ozil, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah.
A back four of Hector, Lich, Kos and Monreal, very experienced offering if low on match fitness
A midfield three that should not get over run.. Then a front three that can do some damage when in the mood
I like the 11
Our sub b each provides options! Keep it tight in first half, rip them a new one in the second!
sub’s bench
Looks like 4-3-3
Southampton have probably done us a favour by not starting long and Austin.
Iwobi and Mikki are well rested now. Hope that they can earn the trust of the coach.
Pretty standard lineup apart from defence. No real defender on the bench though which is quite scary. Elneny and amn will be subbing in back there if things go wrong. Hopefully we don’t need to rotate in defence. I think we should have them, if we can get in behind their wingbacks with ours and get the crosses in early to our 3 forwards entering the box we should at least trouble them a bit. I see Iwobi providing the more attacking width on the left whereas on the right it will be bellerin. Probably see more going down that… Read more »
Surprised he has gone to a back four, and surprised Mkhitaryan is in the XI.
To what extent do people think Emery is thinking about the league cup, Spurs and Wednesday? If he is, how is that factoring in, IYO?
I see that Emery (lauded by many here) still still fancies Iwobi for a start.
You people better get your antacids ready
Bam I think it’s more of how stretched we are for defensive personnel.
But Laca Rambo and Ozil should all be playing against Spurs I’d assume.
And our 2 main CBS will be back for that too.
So we are sort of in a middle ground for both games. Not weak but not our strongest
Dissenter
Right, because Iwobi gives him running, work-rate and energy, not because he offers any real quality. Emery must make do with what he has.
Well if Ozil starts on Wednesday I’d say that pretty much relegates him to second string.
League cup has no bearing on team selection..
Kolasinac I presume is injured as he is not even on the bench .
Bamford
Why can’t some on here get that this is a work in progress and you can’t ship out one entire team and import a new one in a single summer?
Marc
Unless Emery is placing more weight on Wednesday or regards it as the more difficult or important match. Spurs are better than Southampton, obviously, they are our N. London rivals, and Wednesday has direct trophy implications. While it’s only the league cup, I imagine Emery thinks it wouldn’t be a bad thing to get a trophy in his first season.
Dissenter
‘I see that Emery (lauded by many here) still still fancies Iwobi for a start.’
Would be great if he backed his selection for a change with a solid performance. That he is getting picked in starting 11 has more to do with contract related issue with Ramsey, tussle behind the scene between Ozil and Emery and Welbeck’s injury.
It is normal for a player who has only just come back from over a month’s absent to not be risked 2 games in 4 days though that is not saying he hasn’t been relegated to 2nd string.
If the manager rates Iwobi higher than ozil and Lacazette then it’s a little worrying .
Bamford
My comment re Wednesday was more along the lines of Ozil being surplus to requirements. I have no idea how Emery will approach the League Cup but it’s worth bearing in mind City and Chelsea are still in it.
Whilst I’ve always thought the League Cup was a second rate competition it does have one very useful point to it – the final is early in the season if you can win it it can give you a buzz going into the last stretch of the season.
Pierre
If Ozil is so important to the first team then why was he played in a dead rubber match?
(I’ve added this last bit, obviously, just to irritate a few people and stir up a little discord.)
No… doesn’t sound like you one bit.
On how unrealistic signing De Ligt would be well imo we should be able to get him. Obviously it’s all about convincing the player but at 19 if he moved to us he’d get his big money move and be certain to play whereas if he moved to Barcelona he’d get his big money move but not be certain to play when you consider teams like that already have top defenders. We don’t
Iwobi is shit.
No defense cover on bench..
Been a bogey ground in the past. Let’s see today..
Cmon u reds
Iwobi 1 at goal scorer
“By the way, if you set aside penalties, Mo Salah has 10 goals in the PL at this point, while Harry Kane has 6. That is, Salah has nearly double the goals Kane has, and this in a year in which Salah has been “off” as far as many are concerned.Again, just stirring the pot a little.“ Not a great effort at stirring. He’s 4 goals ahead and you’re trying to insinuate “nearly double” as being cavernous. It’s not end of season where one has 40 to the others 20. Salah scored a hat trick just last weekend too. At… Read more »
RSPC
I’d imagine if we need to change CB’s Lich will move inside and AMN will come on at FB.
Marc
It’s to ease him in. The poor bloke needs it. He needs at least 10 games to warm himself up (skill wise), to then pull off one blinder the following game and that will be it for the season. Ozil will be exhausted and will need a 3 week holiday to recuperate from that stellar performance. Rinse, repeat and this is Ozil for you.
Marko
We have our own design light
Smith Rowe
Wilcox
Nelson
Take yer pic
Better than a lad in two Bob Dutch league
Laca and Ramsey on at halftime?
I’m pretty worried about our pace in defense. Not sure if Southampton have much in the way of speedy attackers but nacho, kos and licht are all a bit slow at this point.
Obviously for the same reason Kosielny played..to regain/ build up his fitness..
Next question is ” then why is Kosielny playing today and not ozil”
Answer…Kosielny would probably have been sub at best if we had holding,mustafi and sokratis fit .
DB10
It’s a tough life being Ozil!
Pierre
No one thinks Kos is starting for any reason other than we have 1 first choice CB with a long term injury and 2 suspended.
What are you going to do when Ozil is sold?
I said yesterday that we are lacking height ..important not to give needless free kicks away and for Leno to command his area.
We need high possession of the ball to control the game ….Kosielny I’m not sure looked physically strong enough on Thursday night so he will need protection …
I watched how the Barc team built around Messi. When he made a pass through the middle, 8 out of 10 times, he’ll get the ball back. When I watched Ozil made a pass through the middle, I can see Ozil run in about never gets a return pass.
Ozil and Laza appear to have a bit of chemistry. If Emery is thinking the same way , Ozil and Laza will start va Spuds.
Don’t really give a toss if Ozil leaves as long as it improves the team ….
Interesting line up by Emery. Let’s hope Kos and Monreal hold up. I just do not want to see them getting injured. We really do need them. I feel Emery will be subbing them/one of them at some point in the second half.
Jamie Carraghar is a professional scouser. Every time I hear that shrill accent, I feel the English language dies just a little bit more.
Southampton have nothing today. This should be a routine win for a good side.
Playing Iwobi is just Emery bantz…he’s almost daring me to pipe up and go mad.
Southamptons teamselection looks suspect and they are playing a new system.
Confident on 3 points
Kos and Monreal both won’t see this game out…one will definitely not make it.
Where’s this Greek idiot, Mavropanos?
Nelson
“I watched how the Barc team built around Messi. When he made a pass through the middle, 8 out of 10 times, he’ll get the ball back. When I watched Ozil made a pass through the middle, I can see Ozil run in about never gets a return pass.”
A very insightful comment Nelson ….
If I had made that comment all hell would break loose on le Grove.
And it’s Arsenal,
Arsenal FC,
We’re by far the greatest team,
The world has ever seen….
Jwl
No we’re not. Far from it. We’re not the best team in london.
Sky are showing that Xhaka will start in a back 3. Not sure I like the idea of that.
Mark Hughes has been sacked more times than Paris.
The defensive combination will give Southampton some joy. Loch-Lich-Monreal have never played a premier league game together.
Not that we have a choice today.
Hope Southampton don’t use us as the game to use to push off under a new manager.
Xhaka at CB = red card city.
As long as Austin and Long isnt introduced we will be fine.
The difference is Messi does something impactful with the ball when it’s as his feet. Ozil doesn’t. Messi beats his man, or finds an incisive pass, or beats two men, nearly every time he has the ball. If not, he is trying to do this. He only releases the ball when there is absolutely nothing he can create. Ozil does almost none of this. He does not look to beat players off the dribble, he is not always looking to be incisive or dangerous, he is rarely incisive or dangerous, he doesn’t look to score himself, and the majority of… Read more »
Come on Arsenal!
We do like Torreira don’t we!!!